Saturday Morning Memories

There were a few cartoons that are generally associated with The Disney Afternoon that also aired on Saturday mornings. Gummi Bears was created for Saturday morning but got aired as part of Disney Afternoon when it started. Darkwing Duck I remember as a Saturday morning show first. Mighty Ducks was another one.
 
Hobbyfan, I grew up watching the same Saturday Morning Cartoons as are on your favorites. Did you also watch...The Herculoids, The Fantastic World Of Hanna Barbara which includes, The Impossibles, Jana of the Jungle, Space Ghost, or Filmmation's Tarzan Lord Of The Jungle, The Lone Ranger, Zorro, The New Adventures of Flash Gordon. Did you watch either Kung Fu Theater on Fox 5 in NYC, or at Buck Rogers In The 25th Century at 8pm?

I used to start my cartoon watching with 2 bowls of Peanut Butter Captain Crunch sans milk, then my Dad would make pancakes or we would eat french crullers. In Between the cartoons my friends and I would make lego crash up derby cars and have them careen towards each other, when the cars impacted, many legos would fly into the air and we would rebuild the cars and have more crash ups on the next commercial. After the cartoons we would play either S.W.A.T. (based on the hit series with Robert Urich as a rookie sniper working under Steve Forrest.) My friend Kevin would be the terrorist, so he would get my toy M-16 (my coolest toy gun) and we would hunt him down. Saturday mornings used to be great fun...it is too bad that most networks weekend mornings were taken over by the news divisions.
 
I never thought that I would see a post like this. About somebody loving Saturday mornings these days. I know u was never a saturday morning kid bit still! I've always gotten up and watched Saturday morning cartoons and loved them since I was little until now. But most of them stopped being good IMO at the beginning of this decade with all of the card battling anime stuff that was coming out. But they started getting good again when Kids WB started having (IMO) a killer line up starting 2 seasons ago or whenever it was when they started showing Tom and Jerry Tales. I could sit and watch every show in that line up. Just like when I was little.
 
I go back to 1963-64, when SatAM had more variety than in later years, cartoons such as Bugs Bunny and Casper on ABC, Quick Draw McGraw and Mighty Mouse on CBS, Hector Heathcote and Bullwinkle on NBC, as well as live-action reruns such as Dennis The Menace, Fury, [NBC], Rin-Tin-Tin, Roy Rogers and Sky King [CBS], plus an educational show called Exploring that was on NBC [and which I thought was called Plymouth, like in the car].
 
Aside from FOX Kids the other Saturday morning line-up I got into was Kids WB. Batman, Superman, Men in Black, Pinky and The Brain, Wayne Head, etc.

I think the three Saturday Morning line-ups I got into were CBS, FOX Kids, and Kids WB. Like I said earlier, before I got into FOX Kids I usually just browsed around but I recall mostly checking out CBS for Ninja Turtles and Super Mario. However, even as I got into FOX Kids I'd still check out CBS every once in a while. I remember watching (and being a fan of) shows like Aladdin and The Mask.

So, yea, those were the three, I guess.
 
One of my greatest Saturday morning memories would have to be watching Digimon, on Fox, on the Saturday mornings of 1999-2002.

Also, back in June and December 2007, I made my own Saturday morning line-up, using the various cartoon series that I own on DVD, on a couple of Saturdays of 2007. I'll even post the schedules of what I watched on those Saturdays.

One Saturday in June 2007

7:30 A.M.- Darkwing Duck
8:00 A.M.- The Powerpuff Girls
8:30 A.M.- Ruby Spears' Mega Man cartoon series
9:00 A.M.- Teen Titans
9:30 A.M.- Wish Kid
10:00 A.M.- Heathcliff
10:30 A.M.- Invader Zim
11:00 A.M.- Ren and Stimpy

December 22, 2007

8:00 A.M.- Darkwing Duck
8:30 A.M.- Ruby Spears' Mega Man cartoon series
9:00 A.M.- Wedding Peach
9:30 A.M.- The Powerpuff Girls
10:00 A.M.- Teen Titans
10:30 A.M.- Invader Zim
11:00 A.M.- Ren and Stimpy
11:30 A.M.- The Adventures of Pete and Pete (I know it's not a cartoon, but it's still a cool show.)

I had a good time making my own Saturday Morning line-up. If I'm ever up early on Saturday, I need to do this again, sometime.
 
I was a child of the '90s, but I liked Saturday morning cartoons long after my peers thought it was no longer "cool" to do so, so I was able to catch some of the later promotions and gimmicks. Case in point - ABC's "Toon Twister" promotion for the One Saturday Morning block. Remember these? They were little mirrored devices you had to get from specially marked boxes of Post cereals, and when you held 'em up to the screen during certain parts of "Recess" or "Pepper Ann" or whatever, they'd reveal hidden messages and things.

During the late '90s/early '00s, I was a very torn individual - I liked the One Saturday Morning block, but I was also loyal to Kids' WB at the same time. What settled the matter for me was an incident in 2000 when I found out one week that "The Weekenders" had beaten "Pok?mon" in the ratings for the first time ever. I flipped out, worried that "Pok?mon" would be cancelled if I didn't do my part to contribute to its ratings every week, and vowed never to watch One Saturday Morning again. I also ended up hating "The Weekenders" without ever actually watching it - I was convinced that the show was trying to draw viewers away from "Pok?mon" and drive it off the air. But then again, at the time, I hated anything that seemed to be against "Pok?mon" - including all its competing shows and networks, MAD Magazine, cartoonist Bill Griffith, TV Guide, my classmates, and even my own family members. (I was a sick little kid.)
 
I was a child of the 80s so heres what i watched on each channel from 82(thats the earliest i remember watching sat. morning cartoons) to 94 (when i quit for the most part):
ABC: Rubik the amazing cube, richie rich, laff-a-lympics, superfriends:legendary super powers show/superpowers:galactic guardians, the littles, beetlejuice, real ghostbusters, flintstone kids
NBC: Smurfs, Spider-man and his amazing friends, lazer tag academy,its punky brewster, kissyfur, Captain N/SMB3/SMW, Mr. T, ProStars, WishKid, Spacecats, Alvin and the chipmunks, Alf/Alftales
CBS: Turbo Teen, Dungeons and Dragons, Dragons Lair, Muppet Babies, Garfield and Friends, Back to the future, Raw Toonage, bill and ted's excellent adventures,TMNT
FOX: X-Men, Tiny Toon Adventures (wasnt that big a fan of Fox Kids, and i didnt get it until 93 anyway)
 
When was this? For my peers it was after the first season of Pokemon. In other words, in 1999. After that everyone would watch TRL during the afternoons (yes, both girls AND boys --believe it or not) and on Saturday morning they'd be asleep cause on Friday night they would be out all night.

Then in 2001 (or 2002) cartoons were popular again cause of Dragonball Z. However, that only lasted for a while.

Now, I only have, maybe, one or two friends who watch cartoons. And, a couple of female friends who watch the Disney Channel crap like Hannah Montana and Camp Rock.
 
That applies to everyone, I think. 1993 was the year that FOX Kids made it's breakthrough. That was mostly because of the hard-to-beat 60 episode seasons of Power Rangers, Batman: TAS, and Animaniacs. As well as Saturday morning favorites like X-Men.
 
Way back in the day, Saturday morning television had some of TV's longest running animated programs dominating the airwaves. I remember watching Fat Albert & the Cosby Kids, Scooby-Doo, The Superfriends, Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show, Pink Panther, The Smurfs, Alvin & the Chipmunks, Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, Spider-Man, Muppet Babies, Dungeons & Dragons, etc. The Archies does get an homorable mention. Right now, I've been collecting some classics on DVD to relive my childhood, but I can't wait until Fat Albert & the Cosby Kids is released on DVD, again. I remember and cherish those days. BTW, I also remember ABC's Schoolhouse Rock, NBC's One to Grow On(with Kim Fields, Dwight Schultz, David Hasselhoff, among other stars of NBC programming at the time) and CBS' In the News, narrated by the late Christopher Glenn. It's a real shame those days are gone, now, but it's sure fun to reminisce.
 
Memories? I still get up on Saturday and watch cartoons. :p

Seriously though for me I think it's less the specific cartoons and just the whole experience I treasure(d). I remember my older brothers and I waking up massively early, and nobody was allowed to sleep in, and sitting back for hours of cartoons. It was part of my life for as far back as I can remember. It was a family bonding moment for us.Later on these bonding moments came with my nieces and nephews, and various RL and online friends.

No it'll never be the same as it was, but I still love Saturday morning. The cereal is a little healthier and sometimes getting up in a little harder, but it's still fun to sit back and be a kid again.
 
True. It's different now, but it's not gone entirely. I still get up on the Saturdays I can (I work every other weekend) to watch stuff like The Spectacular Spider-Man. And I'm even looking forward to the new seasons to see how stuff like the new versions of TMNT and Chaotic work out.

I also do like Kevin the Geek mentions sometimes and program my own Saturday morning.
 
That's what I mean. It's still fun to look forward to new seasons of the stuff you like to watch, and also check out the new stuff as it comes. Course I'm in a different situation then many because I don't have cable so Saturday is really my only cartoon day. :sweat:
 
O_O

Wow, I've been doing that kind of thing nearly every week since September 2006. I had no idea that anyone else did! :eek:

This is the schedule I have lined up for the fall:

7.0 - Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog
7.5 - Animaniacs
8.0 - Captain N: The Game Master
8.5 - Hero High
9.0 - Lancelot Link
9.5 - TMNT: Back to the Sewers (alternating with Darkwing Duck on rerun weeks)
10.0 - TMNT 87'
10.5 - C.O.W. Boys of Moo Mesa
11.0 - Kirby: Right Back at Ya
11.5 - Viewtiful Joe
12.0 - Real Ghostbusters
12.5 - Kimba the White Lion

It's kinda evolved a bit past just cartoons from my childhood, but it's looking to be awesome.
 
Did Pee Wee Herman air on Saturdays? I'm pretty sure that was part of my lineup.

Anyway, I'd usually start with Looney Tunes at 6 am. Then it was something like Muppet Babies or Garfield and Friends. My memory is kind of fuzzy on this - but I'm an 80s baby, so it was the kind of lineup you'd expect from that decade ;)
 
Superfriends, Batman and the Super 7, Space Academy/Jason of Star Command, Godzilla/Jana of the Jungle, Flash Gordon the 70's Fantastic Four and Spider-Woman ruled the 70's for me

Thundarr the Barbarian, Goldie Gold and Action Jack, Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, The Incredible Hulk, Mighty Orbots, Kidd Video, Kid Superpower Hour with Shazam!, Mr. T, Pole Position, Dungeons and Dragons, Saturday Supercade, He-Man, She-Ra, Thundercats, Silverhawks, and the Sunbow Productions family of shows ruled the 80's for my ass!

The 90's belonged to Spider-Man, X-Men, Power Rangers, and the Bruce Timm family of DC Comics animated shows until mid 2000's

But the one that ruled them all except the 90's toons was Fat Albert!
 
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